Ethers, find a wide variety of uses in the chemical field. Of the ethers, diethyl ether is perhaps the most widely known and used. For example, this ether is used in the manufacture of smokeless powder, medicine, as an anesthetic, as a solvent for fats, oils resins, waxes, gums and alkaloids, in perfumery, in the manufacture of plastics, as an alcohol denaturant, as an extractant in various processes, etc. Other ethers such as methyl ethyl ether, and methyl propyl ether are used as solvents and, in addition, an ether such as methyl tert-butyl ether has become increasingly important due to the fact that this ether possesses excellent properties as an additive to gasoline whereby the octane number is increased by the presence of this compound.
It has now been discovered that ethers may be produced in an etherification reaction utilizing olefinic hydrocarbons and alcohols as reactants by effecting the reaction in the presence of certain catalytic compositions of metal of the type hereinafter set forth in greater detail.